Twenty years ago, interior designer Ann Getty began a large-scale redecoration of the Pacific Heights residence where she lives with her husband, Gordon, a composer. It was built in 1906 to a classic design by architect Willis Polk and offers an entry hall with collections as opulent as any London museum. The Gettys, generous philanthropists, often entertain an international retinue of cultural and political figures.

At auctions in New York and London, Ann Getty acquired furniture from the great English country houses, including Badminton House and Ditchley Park. Unable to collect French antiques — she says the Getty Museum was in an acquisition phase, and even her budget was not large enough to bid against the family museum — she gathered George II gilded chairs, dramatic Anglo-Indian beds inlaid with mother-of-pearl and porcelain and ormolu objets.

“I love the heft and boldness of English antiques,” says Getty, who is also a champion of art education.

In Paris she scooped up vivid 18th-century silk brocades for pillows. From the estate of dancer Rudolf Nureyev she acquired velvet patchwork textiles, which she made into dramatic curtains.

The renovation, plus the addition of a new wing when the Gettys acquired the house next door, took place over a decade.

“This is the ornate look I love for myself, but I don’t impose it on my clients,” she says. “My work is not all over-the-top design. For clients, I want rooms that reflect their style.”

Even among this grandeur, there are quiet corners for an afternoon tête-à-tête overlooking the Palace of Fine Arts.

Her gracious rooms, with tufted sofas and chairs covered in plum-colored velvets and golden silks, are at once exotic, dazzling and comfortable. Party guests can often be found sprawled on silken sofas, and friends curl up to sip Champagne on chairs covered with luscious Venetian hand-woven silk velvets.

A quartet of Canaletto paintings hovers above a gilded console table in the music room, a theatrical stage for family celebrations. A Sèvres porcelain table commissioned by Napoleon (its pair is installed in Buckingham Palace) stands in a corner. Gilded benches and tables from Spencer House, plus a silk-upholstered glass chair with the look of carved crystal, all demonstrate Getty’s original eye.

While Ann Getty can design entirely practical rooms for young families, the rooms in her own home glow with baroque splendor. Blossoms, birds and butterflies painted on pale blue Chinese silk panels glimmer on the walls of a bedroom.

“Designing is a minor art, but such a pretty one,” says Getty as she glances around her living room. “I love to create interiors that please the eye. Beauty can be so uplifting.”

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Ann Getty Interior Style by Diane Dorrans Saeks, published by Rizzoli, is available at Juicy News, 2453 Fillmore, and Browser Books, 2195 Fillmore. More on the author’s design blog, The Style Saloniste.

Current Issue

STREET TALK

TWO TOP TOQUES AT FILLMORE & PINE

He’s not ready just yet to serve up the new name or the food concept planned for the now-shuttered and butcher-papered space on the northwest corner of Pine and Fillmore. But John Litz, who jettisoned the old Thai Stick sign last month, just introduced his partners in the venture he’s set to establish there: the top toque team of Sayat and Laura Ozyilmaz.

Between them, the two chefs have cooked at five of the 50 world’s best restaurants, according to the respected San Pellegrino list for 2018, including: 111 Madison Park and Le Bernardin in Manhattan, Blue Hill at Stone Barn in Tarrytown, N.Y., Murgaritz in San Sebastian, Spain, and San Francisco’s own Saison. All are either Michelin two or three star rated. Currently the duo are owner-chefs of Istanbul Modern SF, a pop-up restaurant on Russian Hill.

It seems fitting that the former shoe repair shop at 2448 Fillmore has been reborn as a shoe store. But while it offers ballet flats, as many other shops do, Rothy’s is not like the rest. Its flats are made in China from recycled plastic water bottles.

“Look good in your Rothy’s and feel good about your Rothy’s,” boasts the online company, which now has its first brick-and-mortar store.

THREE NEW SPOTS OPEN IN THE LOWER FILLMORE

The craft grocer Merchant Roots is now open at 1365 Fillmore, offering gourmet packaged items, prepared food and dinner three nights each week.

The LoMo got another notable new restaurant when the pop-up RTB Fillmore reopened in April at 1552 Fillmore as Avery. It offers tasting menus at $89, $189 and $289, with wine or sake pairings.

A few blocks south at 1521 Eddy, the Fillmore Social Club is open and serving up Korean cuisine in what once was Gussie’s Chicken & Waffles.

COMING TO FILLMORE: WINE WITH VERVE

The former Gimme Shoes shop at 2358 Fillmore — in recent months a series of pop-ups — now has its city approvals to be transformed into Verve, a wine store also offering tastings and other events.

Verve already has a similar shop in Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborhood, where it offers “a curated selection of global greatest hits.”

LET US COUNT OUR MICHELIN STARS

How fortunate are we to live in this neighborhood? The new Michelin guide offers a clue.

• Three Fillmore restaurants got a star: SPQR, the Progress and State Bird Provisions, plus Octavia at Octavia and Bush and Spruce on Sacramento.

• At 3127 Fillmore, Atelier Crenn got two stars.

• And we can still claim Quince, now all beautifully grown up in Jackson Square, which got a full set of three stars, and first planted its roots where Octavia is now.

That’s not all: Dosa and Sociale are on the Bib Gourmands list of restaurants with “exceptionally good food at moderate prices.” (And so is Quince’s handsome brother, Cotogna.)